In recent years, small unmanned vehicles have been used to supplement or supplant many current operator functions on seafaring vessels and aircraft. They are used to reduce platform size, manpower, and budgets, and to minimize the number of personnel exposed to hostile action.
These unmanned vehicles include both underwater vehicles (UUVs) and aerial vehicles (UAVs). UUVs and UAVs often operate in conjunction with a host vehicle, which is usually either a larger ship or aircraft. UUVs and UAVs are typically deployed from their larger host vehicle via a straightforward and uncomplicated operation. On the other hand, depending upon mission specifics, recovery of a UUV or UAV by the larger host vehicle is anything but simple.
One problem that confounds recovery is that the maximum sustained speed for many small unmanned vehicles is often less than the minimum controllable speed for the larger recovery vehicle. That is true for both seafaring and aerial hosts.
A larger vessel could deploy a cable to catch a UUV. But the cable would be hard to control and, in view of the greater speed of the larger vessel, the shock of being snared could damage the UUV. Likewise, a net could be used by a host aircraft to snare a UAV, but the shock occasioned by the rapid deceleration of the captured UAV can damage it.
Another way to recover a UUV or UAV is to permit it to go dead in the water. This would require that a UAV ditch in the water. UAVs are often fragile and a water landing, especially in rough seas, could damage it. In the case of a UUV, the UUV would simply stop moving. If the UUV's host is a remote multi-mission vehicle (RMMV), this will be problematic, because although quite stable at speed, the RMMV is unstable (and vulnerable) when stationary.
As a consequence, there is a need for a method by which a relatively faster moving vehicle (e.g., host aircraft, host ship, etc.) can recover a relatively slower moving vehicle (e.g., UAV, UUV, etc.).